After an unusually cool spring and month of June, our typical Texas summer has come in with the fireworks of the 4th of July this past week. But those of us who have grown up in Texas, are used to it, and we get through it every year. Some may feel like the fireworks fly when it comes to the Q&A time after one has delivered one’s talk. Well, I have a confession to make …

I love to field questions and answers, and they don’t frighten me. They don’t present a situation of fireworks in my mind, so to speak.

Readers are fascinated with published authors. I’m not sure what the mystique is, except perhaps that everyone truly feels they have a book in them, and would like to write one themselves someday. But they don’t know how to go about it. I was at lunch yesterday with two of my college classmates and one of them asked me, "When did you know you could write?"

It took me aback for a moment. I’d never been asked the question in quite that manner, but I realized it was a variation of the same question I get asked every time I speak of , "How did you get started writing?" My answer was and is, "I grew up writing." Then I explain how my father and grandfather were both newspaper men and authors, and so on.

What if they ask you something you don’t know? Hmm, just say you don’t know. It’s not difficult. As an historical fiction writer, I sometimes am asked about something I don’t know the answer to. I simply reply that I don’t know, but I’d be happy to look it up and email them what I find. I invite them to sign up for my email list, and I have a new subscriber to my newsletter and blog! They are most happy to give me their information.

The point is that questions and answers are nothing to be frightened about. Readers love hearing about our writing journey, our successes and our struggles. Don’t shy away from interacting with your audience.

Please visit my web site www.goldenkeyesparsons.com and order my newest release, my biblical fiction novella, Hidden Faces: Portraits of Nameless Women in the Gospels.